Secrets Beneath the Cedar Trees

Breaking Point

“Wake up, Lydia. They’ve found us.”

Lydia jolted upright, the chilling words from Nathaniel yanking her out of sleep. Her coronary heart pounded in her chest as she grabbed Mark’s arm, shaking him awake. “Get up, Mark. We’re at risk.”

Mark blinked in confusion, rubbing his eyes. “What are you talking about? Who’s observing us?”

“There’s no time to give an explanation for it,” Nathaniel snapped from the doorway, his voice tight with urgency. “We want to travel. Now.”

The sound of footsteps crunching on the gravel outside sent a jolt of worry down Lydia’s spine. “This can’t be taking place,” she whispered, her mind racing. “Not now.”

“It’s happening,” Nathaniel said, already pulling a g*n from his waistband. “They’re here for you.”

“For me?” Lydia’s voice shook as she grabbed Mark’s hand. “Why me? What do they want?”

“Everything you’ve been hiding,” Nathaniel responded, his gaze darkish and targeted. “Everything you in no way advised us.”

Mark’s eyes widened, panic setting in. “Lydia, what haven’t you instructed me? What’s taking place?”

“We can’t try this properly now,” Lydia hissed, her voice strained with worry. “We ought to get out of right here.”

The sharp c***k of a window breaking downstairs made all of them bounce. Mark’s grip tightened on Lydia’s hand, his voice low and pressing. “We want to defend Emma.”

“Emma’s downstairs,” Nathaniel stated, already moving in the direction of the staircase. “We ought to get to her before they do.”

Lydia’s coronary heart raced as they bolted down the stairs. Her thoughts changed into a whirlwind of worry and remorse. *This is all my fault. I ought to have told them. I need to be honest.

As they reached the dwelling room, Lydia iced up. A man stood over Emma, a twisted grin on his face. He became slow, his eyes locking onto Lydia’s with a sinister gleam.

“Hello, Lydia. It’s been a long time.”

Lydia’s breath stuck in her throat. “No, it can’t be.”

“Who is this?” Mark demanded, his voice shaking with anger and fear.

“Someone I never wanted to see again,” Lydia whispered, her eyes in no way leaving the person’s face. “Someone who is aware of things I hoped might live buried.”

The man chuckled, a cold, menacing sound. “You should’ve acknowledged higher, Lydia. Secrets don’t live buried for all time.”

“Stay away from my own family,” Lydia said, looking to preserve her voice regularly, although her insides had been trembling. “What do you want?”

“What do I need?” The guy’s grin widened. “I need what you owe me. I need what you’ve been hiding.”

Nathaniel improved, g*n raised. “Get away from her, now.”

The man’s eyes flicked at Nathaniel, his expression turning dark. “You assume a g*n is going to stop me? You don't have any idea what you’re coping with.”

“Try me,” Nathaniel growled, his finger tightening on the source.

In a flash, the person lunged at Nathaniel, knocking the g*n from his hand. The two men grappled, the fight excessive and brutal. Lydia watched, frozen with worry, as the man overpowered Nathaniel, slashing him throughout the arm with a knife.

“Nathaniel!” Lydia cried, speeding ahead.

The man grew to become on her, knife in hand, but earlier than he should strike, Mark tackled him to the ground. They wrestled to manipulate, but the man turned into a strong room.

“Get Emma out of here!” Mark shouted, struggling to keep the knife at bay.

Lydia’s mind raced. *I can’t leave Mark. But if we stay, we’re all lifeless.

She hesitated, torn between saving Emma and assisting Mark. But in that second breakup, the man overpowered Mark, throwing him off with a brutal shove.

“You’ve made a huge mistake,” the person twisted up, advancing on Lydia.

Just then, Nathaniel, notwithstanding his injury, controlled to seize the fallen g*n. He aimed it at the man’s returned-styled voice. “Move one inch nearer, and I’ll give up this properly right here.”

The guy froze, his eyes flicking between Lydia and Nathaniel. For a second, the room changed into thick with anxiety. The best sound was their heavy respiratory.

Finally, the man sneered, took a step, and returned. “This isn’t over. I’ll have a lower back, and next time, you won’t be so lucky.”

With that, he turned and bolted out the shattered window, disappearing into the night.

Lydia dropped to her knees beside Mark, her palms shaking as she touched his face. “Are you okay?”

Mark groaned, wincing in pain. “I’m nice. But Lydia, what the hell changed to that about? Who turned into him? What have you ever been hiding?”

Lydia’s chest tightened with guilt and fear. She knew this became the instant she'd have a deadhearted moment when the whole thing would come crashing down. “I… I was in no way supposed to show up. There are matters I haven’t informed you about. Things from beyond that I thought I’d left in the back of.”

“Clearly, you didn’t get away from them a sufficient way behind,” Nathaniel stated, wincing as he pressed a hand to his bleeding arm. “He knew precisely where to locate us. This became planned.”

Mark’s eyes bore into Lydia, a combination of anger and hurt in his gaze. “What did you do, Lydia? What are you no longer telling me?”

Before Lydia could answer, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out with trembling fingers, her heart sinking as she studied the message on the screen: “This isn’t over. You understand where to find me.”*

Attached was a photo of an old, dilapidated hothouse where it all commenced.

Lydia’s breath caught in her throat. * It’s him. He’s lower back, and he desires to finish what we began.

“We need to pass,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “We should cross again to where this all started out.”

Nathaniel checked her out with a mix of skepticism and problems. “Go lower back? Are you loopy? That’s precisely what he wishes.”

Lydia shook her head, her remedy hardening. “It’s the best way. We should face him as soon as and for all. Otherwise, this can by no means end.”

Mark stared at her, his expression torn. “And what if we don’t make it out this time?”

“We will,” Lydia stated, though her voice wavered. “We have to.”

The room fell silent as they all grappled with the gravity of what turned into coming back. The darkness out of doors seemed to press in on them, a reminder of the risk lurking simply beyond.

“Then we pass,” Nathaniel in the end said, his voice packed with willpower. “But we do it on our terms. No greater running, no greater hiding. We face this head-on.”

Lydia nodded, even though fear gnawed at her insides. She knew this had changed in the hardest way, but the thought of returning to that hard echolocation area where the lot had long gone so monogrammed her with dread.

As they organized to go away, Lydia couldn’t shake the feeling that they were on foot under a lure. The man’s words echoed in her mind: “You know where to discover me.”